Up to now, a vehicle display control device that controls a virtual image display for a head-up. display (HUD: head-up display) that superimposes a display image related to a traveling state of a host vehicle that is automatically controlled by an automatic control unit on an outside scenery of the host vehicle to perform the virtual image display has been widely known.
In a device disclosed in Patent Literature 1 as one type of the vehicle display control device described above, an emphasized image emphasizing the presence of a preceding vehicle in an outside scenery is displayed by the HUD as a virtual image at a position superimposed on a forward traveling road in the outside scenery. In this example, the automatic control unit installed in the vehicle to which the device is applied is a cruise control unit which automatically controls the cruising of the host vehicle. Therefore, during a cruise control of the cruise control unit, an emphasized image formed in a virtual image display region is formed. This allows a user to correctly and promptly grasp the presence of the preceding vehicle from which a distance to the host vehicle is secured under the control of the cruise control unit, and therefore the feeling of security can be brought to the user.